


You are, you know… My best friend I mean.

by UpsideDownForever



Category: Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Hurt Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Needs a Hug, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, MIT Era, MIT!Rhodey, MIT!Tony Stark, Married James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Platontic Rhodey x Tony, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, RhodeyxTony - Freeform, Suggested Smut, Swearing, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, TonyxRhodey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:55:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28982232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UpsideDownForever/pseuds/UpsideDownForever
Summary: How Tony Stark and James Rhodes met in MIT and the story of their friendship.I am terrible at summaries, dear god help me.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	You are, you know… My best friend I mean.

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't normally write for Tony Stark or Rhodey, but me and my best friend decided instead of giving each other gifts for Christmas we would write a fic that the other one wants to read but doesn't want to write. She wanted a MIT!Era Tony and Rhodey Fic so here we are. 
> 
> Happy Christmas Paige, you absolute pain in my ass.

“James wait up!” James Rhodes head turns around to spot Burk jogging down the hall to catch up with him.

“Hey man, you ready for this?” James asks, ‘this’ being the next module in the engineering degree both men were working towards. This was the big one as well, going toward 25% of the overall grade and everyone was sort of freaking out about it. Mainly because the course professor Mr Neal had decided to make it a paired assignment.

“Man I hope Neal has mercy and puts us together, I don’t know if I can handle being put with someone else with this.” Burk complains about this every time there is a paired assignment, James just thinks he doesn’t like other people all that much. But after the disaster that was being put with Jack Kelly last time he agrees wholeheartedly, rolling his eyes at the thought both men make their way into class and take their usual seats in the front left of the class and wait for the rest to make an appearance. After around 10 minutes most of the students had arrived and taken their seats, just then Mr Neal breezes in and claps his hands to grab the attention of the class, he speaks as he moves to his desk at the front of the room.

“Right kids, now the moment you have all been looking forward too!” The class laugh and Mr Neal writes the module name upon the board, turning around after he is finished.

“Right so I emailed over all the recommended reading for this module last night so if you didn’t get it just let me know and I’ll resend it. As you all know you will be put into pairs for this ass-“

Mr Neal’s voice falls short as the whole classes’ attention is pulled to the class door swinging open and the one and only Tony Stark walks through. James thinks he looks a little worse for wear and if he’s not mistaken is still in yesterday’s clothes accompanied with a pair of designer sunglasses. An unamused look flits across Mr Neal’s face and he crosses his arms over his chest impatiently as Tony walks straight passed him with no explanation.

“Late again Mr Stark?” Turning round to look at him, Tony pushes his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose and looks Mr Neal over once and plainly states.

“Just add it to my bill.”

Tony turns and makes his way to a seat right at the back off the class. James rolls his eyes and turns to Burk who has a knowing smirk on his face. Everyone knows the only reason Tony Stark is in MIT is due to the fact his father is a huge beneficiary to the school. Howard Stark probably owns the whole building they were in right now to be honest, no one could touch Tony Stark and boy did he know it.

Mr Neal coughs and continues explaining the course material and deadlines. When it was almost time for the class to end when finally Neal decided to put them all out of their misery and email them all the list of pairs for the upcoming term. The silence in the room was almost eerie as everyone frantically searches for their partners. Burk’s eye light up and a smile flashes his face as he realises the name paired with his own; the only girl in this class, Paige. The poor girl has been hit on by every single guy in this class- bar James himself within the very first week, but to her credit she always just flipped her black hair and replied with a simple ‘Sweetie please, I’m trying to work here thanks’, waving them off. James respected her for her commitment and knowledge and would always have her back when someone dared to question her just for her gender or her beauty. Honestly he didn’t know who he felt most sorry for: Paige for being paired with Burk, or Burk for the hell he knows that Paige is about to rain upon the poor boy.

James continues to scan the list until he finds his own name and freezes.

Fuck.

_Fuck._

Someone has to have it out for him because this is probably worse than Jack Kelly. For the name paired with his none other than Tony fucking Stark. Looking behind at said man, he was pretty sure we was asleep at the back of the room right now.

James is very certain he is fucked. So very fucked.

The end of class comes around far too soon and as the rest of the student pack up Burk almost runs over to Paige, completely forgetting about James entirely. So with a sigh he makes his way over to Tony. Standing in front of Tony’s desk he waited for him to acknowledge his existence, when that didn’t happen he just sighed once more and took the seat next to Tony.

“Right so how do you wanna do this?” Tony looked over at the man next to him, assuming that this was the guy Mr Neal has paired him with. Tony thought he looked like the average, run of the mill MIT student. Destined for a shitty desk job and nothing much more.

“Yeeeeah, no this isn’t how this is gunna work Sourpatch.” Tony drawled, standing up and going to move to the door but is stopped by James voice.

“I’m not following?” Tony looks to the ceiling in exasperation before turning to look at James once more.

“God the people they let in here, okay I’m going to spell it out for you, you don’t worry your pretty little head about the project and I will do it all so I can make sure you don’t slow me down, capishe?”

The arrogance was almost dripping from Tony and James still couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

“Did you actually just ‘capishe’ me? Seriously dude?” James patience was wearing thin and he could feel his anger bubbling to the surface.

“Okay good chat...” Tony’s voice trails off and he looks expectantly at James as if he didn’t even know who he was, it wasn’t like they had shared the same class for nearly a year or anything. But James just figures that’s the kind of man Tony Stark is and finally replies.

“James, James Rhodes.”

“Okay Rhodes, I’ll be in contact once I’m done.”

“Absolutely not.” Tony stops in his tracks at this, no one had ever refused not having to do anything for a good grade before.

“Excuse me? Most people jump at the chance of an easy A+ an you’re saying ‘absolutely not’?” Tony looks expectantly at James Rhodes, thinking the man would change his mind on the situation. James takes a deep breath and levels a look at Tony before he stands and walks over to him.

“Look Shortstack I’m not trusting my 25% of my grade to a trust fund brat who is displaying a breath-taking amount of narcissistic qualities. So here is how it’s actually going to work. You are going to meet me in the south campus common room when we are both free and we are going to do this together. Any questions?”

Tony stared at James incredulously, for the first time in a very long while he didn’t know what to say so he just nodded. Without a second thought James just walked past him and out of the classroom without a single look back and Tony just watched him go.

###

“Ah Rhodey nice of you to finally join me, I’m already a quarter of the way through. Are you sure you don’t want to do the smart thing and just let me handle this?” James looked up at Tony’s voice and inwardly sighed, he really could have done without this today but they needed to get ahead of this project.

“Firstly; don’t call me Rhodey my name is James. Secondly; how on earth are you already a quarter of the way through considering that I know for a fact that you were at Adrianna Howell’s kegger last night and have classes all day today?” James questions as he takes off his coat and hangs it on the back of the chair opposite Tony before taking a seat.

“You keeping tabs on me now Rhodey? Honestly I am touched.” Tony quipped as he leant back on his chair looking him over once before going back to his paperwork.

“Stark…” Rhodey warned, fully prepared to bitch slap this man into next year.

“Look I don’t need as much sleep as most people okay? I just like to keep busy.” James looks at Tony warily, everything about this statement doesn’t sit well with him, but hey what can he do really?

“God this is going to be a long term. Can I read what you’ve done already?” Scrubbing at his face and reaching a hand out for Tony’s work, the latter holds the papers close to his chest, shocked.

“Why? Don’t you trust me?” James could hear the accusatory tone in Tony’s voice but was too tired to care at this particular moment, so he just waved his hand again.

“Honestly I don’t know you well enough to trust you. I just want to double check, this is my grade too you know.”

“I find that not only rude that you don’t trust me but mostly insulting that you’re questioning my intelligence.” Tony retorted and James scoffed.

“Dude, really? Your scores are mediocre at best.” A look of anger from Tony met a look of exasperation from James.

“I already know everything Neal is teaching, what’s the point in writing everything down on paper?” Tony mumbles, crossing his arms.

“Right sure and you wonder why I want to double check?” James just holds his hand again, expectantly.

“Fine whatever, do what you want.” Tony almost throws the papers across the table and James sighs again and picks them up.

“No need to get touchy man.” James mumbles as he looks over Tony’s work. After a while Tony starts to get impatience as James hasn’t said a single things since he started reading. 

“Well?” Tony told himself he wasn’t going to say anything but the word come out anyway. James just looked up from the paper to Tony smiling.

“Well it’s good, very good. Except you forgot to calculate the air resistance.” Tony snatched the paper away from where James held it out to give back, eyes scanning wildly in disbelief.

“What?! No I didn’t?” James notices that Tony’s word are near panic, way over the reaction that James had expected. Weird.

“Yeah you did, you calculate for major resistance or no resistance. But what about little or medium resistance huh?” James remarks but it’s almost like Tony can’t hear him. He is just frantically searching through papers, breathing heavily.

“This is ridiculous, it’s got to be here!” James stopped for a moment and looked at Tony, really looked at him.

Heavy, laboured breaths. Deep circles under his eyes. Shaky hands. Almost entirely disconnected from his surroundings. This guy was having a panic attack and somehow James has triggered it. So reaching forward James stills Tony’s frantic searching by putting his hands atop his.

“Hey Tones, look at me?” James’ voice is so soft that Tony hesitantly looks up at him as he removes his hand.

“Breathe Tony, I need you to talk to me okay?” Tony’s breathes were still coming too fast for James’ liking.

“About what?” Tony replied.

“I don’t care, uh how long has it been since you slept? Or eaten?” Apparently talking about Tony’s wellbeing was the wrong subject because Tony’s eyes left his face and began searching the papers again.

“That doesn’t matter, I’m sure I wrote it down somewhere.”

“Okay uh, what’s your mother’s name?” James asked trying to think of topics to get Tony’ attention again. Tony stopped searching once more and quietly spoke.

“Maria Stark.” When Tony looked up his eyes looked a little clearer, perfect!

“Maria, that’s a really nice name, what is she like?” James questioned still trying to keep Tony focused on his mother.

“She’s fantastic, far too good for my dad. She plays the piano, I miss that.” A small smile appeared on Tony’s face and James couldn’t help but mirror it on his own.

“The piano huh? What does she like playing?” The smile grew as Tony answered.

“There’s this one song she always plays, what was the name of it? I think it was called trying to remember, yeah that was it.” James noticed that Tony’s breathes had evened out and he wasn’t shaking anymore, he let out a breath of his own he didn’t know he was holding.

“Sounds real nice. You good?” James question took Tony off guard, like he hadn’t realised until just then what had happened. His eyes go wide and he hides his face in his hands.

“Yeah… Yeah.” He responds and James knows he’s embarrassed so decides not to push it anymore. So instead he just stands up and motions to the door.

“Good, get up we’re going for food.” James starts to gather Tony’s things up, preparing to leave.

“What?” Tony responds, finally taking his head out of his hands.

“Do you like Chinese? I’m feeling Chinese.” James hands over the newly gathered papers over to Tony.

“I’m not hungry.” Tony mumbles, going to put the papers back upon the desk, only to be stopped by James once more.

“Yes you are, come on you’re burning out, we’ll work on this tomorrow.” James states which leads to a stare off between the two boys. Finally Tony sighs dramatically and puts the paper in his bag.

“Okay, okay.” James smiles and helps gather the last of Tony’s belongings before Tony says his name so softly that he almost thought he was hearing things.

“Yes Tony?”

“Thanks.” Knowing the reputation Tony Stark has, James wasn’t sure if Tony had ever used please or thank you before in his life. But standing here with him, he thinks that maybe all the rumours and talk about Tony Stark is exactly that. Rumours and talk. So James simply patted Tony on the back and said.

“No problem man, now come on I’m hungry.”

And just like that the unusual friendship of Tony Stark and James Rhodes began. Every day after class the pair would meet up and bounce ideas off one another, coming up with bigger and better ways to prove their theories.

James somehow began to be known as Rhodey to more and more people other than Tony, much to his annoyance. He wouldn’t tell anybody, especially not Tony but he kind of liked it, he’d never had a nickname before.

On the other hand Tony had never really had anyone care about him (aside from his mother) and it was a strange concept for him to get his head around. Rhodey would turn up unannounced at his dorm room and just throw food at him, or turn up at the school lab and make him leave to go have a nap. It was the kind of unexpected friendship that felt like it had been there forever.

###

Rhodey was having a bad day. A bad, very not good day. Stomping down the corridor to Tony’s dorm he ignored the questioning looks from the other students and flung open the door.

“Tony have you heard the- oh my god!”

Rhodey had just walked in on Tony mid-fuck.

God the one time he didn’t knock, the one goddamn time! The girl atop him scrambled to cover herself as Rhodey covered his eyes and turned around, but not before he recognised the girl, Paige.

“Hi Rhodey.” Paige’s voice was laced with humour as she addressed him, well he’s glad she thinks it’s funny because Rhodey certainly did not.

“I’ll just wait outside, I’m so sorry.” With that Rhodey left the room and shut the door. After a few minutes Rhodey hears giggling from inside and then the door opening to reveal Paige fully dressed.

“Hi.” She greets him once more and Rhodey can’t bring himself to look at her.

He mummers back a greeting hoping she was just going to leave it, but of course this day was not that kind.

“What so now you’ve seen me naked you can’t look at me? Am I that bad Rhodey?” The question catches Rhodey off guard and his head whips up to see her trying to contain laughter, he smiles and shakes his head at the girl.

“I just didn’t know you and Tony are bumping uglies is all…” Rhodey replied wishing this whole conversation would end.

“I know but he does this thing with his hips…” Paige’s voice trails off and she starts to motion with her hands as if to demonstrate when Rhodey’s voice cuts her off.

“I do not need that image in my head oh my god!” Rhodey groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face once more.

“Not jealous are we?” Paige questioned, watching Rhodey’s eyes widen almost comically.

“No! No not jealous! Jesus, just who’s going to break the news to poor Burk?” Rhodey questioned, trying to change the subject. Paige laughed out loud and patted his shoulder as she walked passed him.

“I’ll leave that to you, I should really be getting going now so I’ll see you in class?”

“Yeah see you Paige.” He waved at the retreating girl and opened the door again.

Tony hadn’t put any clothes on, he had just draped his cover over himself. Once Rhodey had realised this, he threw his hands up in the air and motioned to the clothes on the floor.

“Jesus Tones can you put some clothes on?” Tony made no move to get dressed, he just put his hand behind his head, just getting more comfortable.

“We are literally in my room, plus you can’t see anything so what the problem?”

“The problem is you are naked?” Rhodey replied as if it wasn’t the most obvious thing.

“Again, my room? What did you want to tell me earlier?” Tony dismissed Rhodey again.

“Right, I asked Lindsie out earlier today and do you know what she said?” Rhodey lent against Tony’s guess and looked up at the ceiling.

“By your reaction I going to guess no?” Tony replied dryly, wondering how this took precedent over his sex life.

“Oh no she said yes but she looked very sad when she asked me why ‘WE’ broke up?” Rhodey explained, motioning his hand back and forth between the two of them.

“Wait what?” Tony studied Rhodey for a moment trying to figure out if he was joking or not, when he finally accepted that he wasn’t, laughed.

“Oh yeah, I asked around and everyone thinks we are dating Tony- well I guess everyone except Paige apparently…” Rhodey seemed very upset about this face but honestly it was one of the funniest things that Tony had heard in a while.

“Oh no she definitely thinks were dating, what did you say to people when they thought we were dating? Did you defend our love my little honey bear?” Tony dramatically replied whilst pretend swooning in Rhodey’s direction.

“Nope, not doing this, not at all.” Throwing an accusatory finger in Tony’s direction, he heads towards the door when Tony laughs out a response.

“Come on Rhodes, if people don’t think you and your best friend are gay together then are they really your best friend?” This stops Rhodey in his tracks, a warmth spreads over him at the thought of being someone’s best friend, especially Tony’s.

“I’m your best friend?” Confusion crosses Tony’s face, then sadness, then quickly followed by the same fake smile he gives near enough every other person in his life.

“I’m not your best friend? Honey bear I’m hurt.” Tony jokes, but Rhodey knows him better than that, knows that behind every self-deprecating joke is always a hint of truth. There’s a heavy silence before Rhodey finally breaks it.

“You are, you know… My best friend I mean.” Rhodey scratches the back of his head, unable to look at Tony after the whole bromance moment.

“Honestly I love it when people declare I’m their best friend when I’m super naked.” Tony counters laughing, never being one for awkward moment.

“You had to make it weird man.” Rhodey cringes but ultimately laughs along with his best friend. Sighing dramatically Rhodey walks to the door calling out behind him.

“I’m leaving now, text me when you finally deign to put clothes on.”

Tony’s laughter can be heard as he walks down the corridor.

###

Rhodey was knee deep in some bullshit coursework when he heard his bedroom door open.

“Tones, what have I told you about knocking?” Rhodey said rolling his eyes without even looking up, only one person would just barge into his room like this.

“Wrong Stark Mr Rhodes but it’s nice to know I was directed to the right room.” At the voice that was most definitely NOT Tony’s, Rhodey’s head darted round to see Howard Stark stood in his doorway, assessing his room with a cool eye. He looked exactly how Rhodey remembered from the papers, greying hair, moustache and a particularly expensive looking suit.

“Tony’s dad right?” Rhodey asks just to make sure.

“Howard Stark. Nice to meet you.” When Howard put his hand out to shake Rhodey automatically grabbed it but not before he noted how much he bristled at being called Tony’s dad. As if it bothered him that it was that way and not Tony being known as Howard’s son.

“Likewise, what can I do for you sir?” Letting go of Rhodey’s hand Howard walks around the room as he speaks.

“I’ve come to talk to you about your involvement with my son.” A fresh surge of embarrassment and shock rides through Rhodey as he starts stammering.

“I can’t even believe I’m saying this but I am not dating your son, I don’t know where this rumour came from but we can’t seem to shake it.” Rhodey groaned and Howard’s eyebrows rise slightly.

“I was not talking about that but it’s good to know I guess, I actually came to offer you a deal of sorts…” Howard toyed with one of Rhodey’s books.

“A deal sir?” Rhodey asked, very confused at where this conversation was going…

“Tony’s grade have finally risen and when I spoke to the teachers they all pointed me in your direction. Turns out your ‘friendship.’” The way Howard air quoted friendship put Rhodey’s back up for some reason.

“With Tony has had a positive effect on him, so I’m here to ask you to keep that up and in return I am more than willing to help you out financially.”

“Wait what?”

“With one phone call every bit of debt you have is gone, with one phone call after you graduate ever job you would ever want will be available to you. Do we have an understanding?” Howard put the idea forward like it was already a done deal. Anger filled Rhodey at the sight of Howard’s smug face, how dare he dismiss Tony’s hard work? Or think that he could just buy their friendship like it was for sale?! He took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke.

“Do we have an understanding? Let me tell you something, I am not friends with you son for benefits. I do not want nor need your financial help and if I get a job it will be through my hard work and dedication to my field. So yes we have an understanding Mr Stark. You can shut the door on your way out, thank you.” Turning back to his work, trying to calm himself down once more. Howard didn’t say anything else, reaching into his pocket and placing a card on his bedside table.

“Think about Mr Rhodes, I am a phone call away.”

And then Howard left.

###

“Come on man its one party, how do you even have this much coursework?”

“Tones I literally cannot do this tonight, you left your glasses on my side table, please take them and go hit on some poor girl and leave me to my sadness okay?” Rhodey pushes Tony away from him one more time trying to focus on this last bit of work that needed to be in tomorrow. Tony pats him on the head and makes a move to grab his glasses when his eyes are drawn to a small business card. Tony definitely recognised that card so he goes and grabs it to double check. Dread fills his stomach as he looks at this little piece of hell that always manages to weasel its way into anything good in his life.

“Why is my dad’s card on your side table?” Tony’s voice is cold, betrayal lacing the tone.

“What?” Rhodey asks, finally looking up at the change in his voice to see him holding Howard’s card in which he completely forgot about.

“Why are you speaking to my dad?” Tony accused, feeling the usual anger that comes with the mention of his father.

“He literally turned up yesterday and left it for me, he’s a weird man.” Rhodey said trying to play it down like Howard hadn’t just turned up and offered to buy him basically.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tony questioned once more, not willing to let this go.

“Cause I didn’t think it would matter?” Rhodey defended, unsure on why Tony is making a big deal off this.

“What did he want?” Tony’s face was still set in stone, as if waiting for the blow to hit.

“Doesn’t matter, I wasn’t interested.” As soon as the words came out of Rhodey’s mouth, he knew he had made a mistake. Now they were just talking over each other.

“Of fucking course, how much did he offer you?”

“Tony it doesn’t matt-“

“Did you take it?”

“Tony what is wrong with you?!” Rhodey’s voice rose to the point where he was shouting just to try and get through to his best friend. Both stood there after the outburst breathing hard, not saying a word.

“You know what Rhodes, fuck you. Call my dad and take whatever he offered you, if you haven’t already and leave me the fuck alone.” The calmness in Tony’s voice now made Rhodey panic, this was much worse than the accusing tone or the raised voices. The resignation and defeat in those words were like stones being thrown. Tony turned on his heels and pulled the door open, but Rhodey was not finished with this conversation. Following him out into the hall, he called after him.

“Tony wait! I don’t understand what’s happening right now?!” Rhodey grabbed hold of Tony’s arm to stop him walking away, trying to get a hold of this situation before it got further out of hand.

“Delete my number and don’t talk to me again.” Tony looked down at the hand on his arm and gave a sharp tug, effectively removing it.

“Tones I’m not gunna do-“ Once again Tony interrupts, very much done with this whole ordeal.

“Can’t disappoint my dear old dad ay?! Just stop! Stop pretending and leave me alone.” Tony’s voice get louder and they have both now attracted some students trying to pry in on what’s happening. Rhodey realises that maybe they both just need some time to calm down before this becomes a spectacle in the hallway. So he just watched as Tony walked away from him, promising himself he will fix this tomorrow.

###

The one good thing about your best friend completely dropping you from his life is the fact that at least now no one thought you were a couple anymore, the bad thing is that everyone just keeps coming up to you and consoling you about your break up. No matter how many times Rhodey assured people that they were never in fact together, all he got back were sad smile and pitiful pats on the back in return.

As for Tony, it was almost like he and Rhodey had never even met. Tony threw himself into partying and screwing anyone who was willing to participate, his grades dropped drastically but he didn’t seem to care at all.

It was blatantly obvious something had happened between the two boys but neither of them would comment on it, so of course rumours were flying. From Tony cheating on Rhodey, to Rhodey only being with him to piss off an ex, it was absolute carnage. After a while Rhodey stopped trying to sort things out, there were only so many times that he could be ignored before just accepting this was the way things were now.

Until one Tuesday night, in the very early hours of the morning Rhodey was woken up by a phone call. Sitting up and blindly reaching for the phone Rhodey doesn’t even look at the caller ID before swiping to answer.

“Hello?” Rhodey says groggily, the caller stays silent for a moment but the back ground noise is so loud, almost like who ever it is on the other end is stood by speakers at a party. Rhodey repeats his greeting once more but there is still no reply, he is just about to hang up before he finally hears a voice.

“Rhodey…” At the sound of Tony’s voice Rhodey sits up straight in his bed, he had never heard him sound so vulnerable, almost scared.

“Tony is that you? Are you okay?” Rhodey questioned once more, the music in the background still loud but fading quickly, as if Tony was walking away from the party. Rhodey didn’t know if this was a drunk dial or intentional but he was already up and getting dressed before he even knew what was going on.

“Rhodey, I need help.” His brittle voice is almost recognisable now the loud thumping of the music has faded to a mere whisper.

“What do you mean you need help Tones? Where are you?” Rhodey was starting to panic now, how bad of trouble could Tony have got himself in if he was calling Rhodey for help after all this time.

“I… I think did something stupid, I’m at the Beta frat house, can you come get me?”

“What do you mean you did something stupid Tony? Are you okay? What’s happened?”

“I took some pills and I don’t feel so good, I’m sat on their front steps and I wanna go home but I can’t move.” Rhodey stilled at his word before quickly regaining himself, grabbing his keys and heading out of his room, letting the door slam shut behind him.

“Jesus Tony, stay where you are I’m on my way.” Rhodey’s voice was strained as he struggled to open his car door, hoping he could get there in time for whatever was about to happen.

“Will you stay on the phone with me?” His voice sounds sleepy now and Rhodey speeds up ever so slightly, praying to anyone who will listen for tonight not to be the night he gets pulled over for speeding.

“Yeah Tony I’ll stay on the phone, tell me about the party?” Rhodey stayed on the phone the whole drive over, making Tony keep talking just to make sure he didn’t pass out on him or worse. As he pulled up to the frat house his eyes immediately found Tony exactly where he said he would be, slumped against the step railing, eyes closed, his phone in his hand. Rhodey rushed over to him and knelt in front of him pushing his hair back and patting his cheeks.

“Hey Tony, it’s me can you open your eyes please?” Tony’s head lulled forward once before righting itself, his eyes were unfocused almost like he was seeing through Rhodey completely. Rhodey grabbed Tony’s chin making him look directly at his face. After a few seconds a spark of recognition flashed in those whiskey eyes.

“Hi Rhodes.” Tony’s voice wavered but at least he was conscious, Rhodey let out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding as he steadied his friend swaying.

“Hi, can you stand up for me? I’m gunna take you to the hospital okay?” Rhodey slung Tony’s arm around his shoulder and helping him stand, grunting when the full weight of him almost topples them both over. They were only a few steps forward when Rhodey was met with resistance, looking down Tony was trying to avoid the general direction of the car, Rhodey asked him what he was doing once he realised Tony was doing it on purpose.

“No, no hospital, I just need to go home. Don’t take me to the hospital. Please…” Tony was almost pleading and Rhodey furrowed his brows, trying to take in why he doesn’t want to go the hospital.

“I really think we should go to the hosp-“ Before Rhodey can even finish his sentence Tony is trying to escape from his grasp, but Rhodey holds on tight.

“No, I’m not going to the hospital, just leave me here.” Tony is almost shrieking now, trying to sit back down so Rhodey keeps pulling him toward his car until he finally gives into him.

“Okay, okay, no hospital. I’ll just take you home yeah?” Rhodey tries to make his voice as soothing as possible, as if he was trying to calm a small child or a wild animal. I takes a few minutes of coaxing Tony to get him to start walking to the car again, getting him in the car was ten times more difficult than Rhodey first thought it would be. When he was finally in and had a seatbelt on (which Tony wasn’t having any of at first) Rhodey runs round the side of the car and gets in the driver’s seat.

“You promise?” Tony’s voice sounds so small and when Rhodey looks over at him, he is staring out the window and mindlessly playing with his seatbelt.

“Promise what?” Rhodey tentatively replies, waiting for Tony to clarify what he meant.

“No hospitals, I don’t like hospitals…” His voice trails off and Rhodey is sure that he has fallen asleep, but replies anyway.

“Yeah Tones, I promise.”

###

Before Tony even opens his eyes he knew that this was going to be the come down of his life, mixing wasn’t his smartest idea but from the feel of things he had made it back to his room okay so it can’t have been _that_ bad. His arm came out to see if there was another person in his bed with him but was pleasantly surprised when he was met with the clear absence of another body. Sighing he rolled over and opened his eyes- hang on this wasn’t his room? Within seconds he recognises exactly where he is, sitting up slowly he looks down at himself, these were not the clothes that he went out in last night? The green jumper he was in was at least two sizes too big for him, noticing the MIT written across the front there is no denying he is definitely in James Rhodes bed. Finally looking up he spots the for mentioned Rhodey asleep at his desk, Tony notes that he looks very uncomfortable and shifts in the bed guiltily, what had happened last night?

A sudden burst of pain shoot through Tony’s skull and he hisses in pain as his hand comes to rest on his forehead, the noise startling Rhodey awake. Rhodey’s eyes immediately meets Tony’s and he can see the fear turn to relief as he takes him in. For a short time neither of the boys say anything, both unsure how to approach the upcoming conversation. Rhodey shifts in his chair subtly and clears his throat, trying to find the best way to ask if Tony needs help without sounding condescending.

“So I have a life-threatening headache, not in my own bed or my own clothes… We didn’t sleep together did we?” He had tried to put on his usual haughty tone to the words that he spoke but for the first time that Rhodey can recall, Tony’s voice was hesitant, as if he was truly unsure what had happened last night that had lead him to this moment. Trying to ease the situation as much as possible Rhodey decided to approach this with humour.

“Trust me if we had slept together Tony, you would _definitely_ remember it.” Tony lets out a small snort and holds his head in his hand once more. Rhodey takes pity on him and hands over a bottle of water from his mini fridge, Tony takes it appreciatively but make no moves to unscrew the lid.

“Your clothes are in a bin bag over there, you threw up a lot last night so I thought it would just be easier let you get it all out and just lend you some of mine.” Rhodey motions to the black bag that has been put to the side of his room

“Ah right.” Tony fiddles with the bottle in his hands, unsticking and resticking the label to avoid what he knows is going to come next, Rhodey sighs and stands up, making his way over to perch on the end of the bed.

“Tony what happened last night?” Rhodey asks softly, not wanting to lose the opportunity to finally talk to his best friend. But Tony had other ideas as he swings his legs of the bed and stands, tugging the joggers that were too big for him and tying the strings so they wouldn’t continue to fall.

“Don’t worry about it Rhodes, sorry to be a pain I’ll just grab my stuff and get out of your hair.” Rhodey knows that if he lets Tony leave now he may not have another chance to sort this out.

“No Tony wait, talk to me man? You scared the shit out of me last night and then refused to let me take you to a hospital? What’s up with that?”

“What do you want me to say Rhodes? I was having a good time and it got a little out of hand, that’s it! I’m sorry I shouldn’t have called you.” Before he could get to the door Rhodey grabs his arm, tony stops in his tracks as Rhodey speaks more softly than Tony has ever heard him before.

“No Tony, you can always call me you know that… I’ll always come get you.” Rhodey drops the hold he has on Tony and sits back down on the bed, scrubbing his hands over his face. Tony could have just left at that, he wanted to, but he somehow couldn’t make his feet move. He couldn’t bring himself to leave Rhodey sat there looking so worried. Letting his gaze drop to the floor, he made a decision to walk back over to the bed and take a seat next to Rhodey. Neither of the boys could bring themselves to look at the other, both secretly hoping the other would say something to make everything better again.

“Look I still don’t overly know what happened but I didn’t take anything from your dad. He just turned up in my room, offered me money and I told him where to shove it. I know you probably don’t believe me but I promise it did.” Rhodey let the words tumble out his mouth wanting to get it all out there before Tony changed his mind a strode out his life once more, he wanted to make sure he could say he at least tried to fix things and if that didn’t work then he would just have to accept they weren’t friends anymore.

“I believe you.” Rhodey’s head snapped up at the words, unsure whether or not he had heard Tony correctly, but as he met Tony’s eyes and could see the truth written on his face.

“You do?” Rhodey asked, just need the vocal confirmation so he knew for sure that this wasn’t going end up in another screaming match.

“Yeah, the main fact of it my dad is not a fan of yours so you must have said something to piss him off.” Both of them laughed at that, the tension in the air dissipating.

“So are we good?” Rhodey asked as he bumped his shoulder to Tony’s, the former returning the gesture.

“Yeah we’re good.” A comfortable silence fell over the two of them but Rhodey knows he needs to address what happened last night.

“Do we need to talk about what’s going on with you?” Tony didn’t say anything at first, Rhodey stayed quite just letting Tony have the time he needs to figure out what was going on in that big brain of his.

“I don’t really know what’s going on with me if I’m honest…” Tony’s voice trailed off, not really know how he could fix himself after all this time, he didn’t even know if he wanted to fix himself, he just knew he didn’t want to feel like this anymore. He didn’t want to put this on Rhodey, he didn’t need anyone else drowning in the mess that he had made.

“Okay, we’ll figure it out together, if you’ll let me help you Tony?” Rhodey’s voice cut through Tony’s thoughts, almost silencing them completely. Rhodey had complete faith in him and wasn’t going to let him walk through the darkness alone. Somehow that first, daunting step didn’t seem so scary when someone was willing to walk it with you.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Great, because I am about to cause you a world of pain for that shit you pulled last night, you know that right?”

“God this feels like exactly what would have happened if we had slept together then.”

“Well maybe they’ll think we have got back together and leave off?”

“Oh honeybear that didn’t really put them off the first time around.”

####

They had made it.

It wasn’t easy, between Tony with his addiction struggles, both boys nearly getting suspended for vandalism charges (it totally wasn’t either of their faults the lab caught fire), many _many_ sleepless nights trying to get everything perfect, they had both finished at top of their classes.

All the hard work over the years have paid off and now they stood at their graduation after party after receiving their diplomas. The party was out of this world curtesy of Tony, who had paid for everything and anything. Drinks were flowing and conversations of future endeavours were being thrown around carelessly. Tony had barely seen Rhodey all day, every time he went to talk to him it was like someone always whisked either one of them or both of them away.

By the time they finally caught up with each other the party was coming to an end, Rhodey was sat on a stool up at the bar, nursing a glass of scotch. Tony took the stool next to him, ordering a glass for himself, when the drink got passed over to him he raised his glass.

“Well Rhodey, cheers to us.” Rhodey chucked and touched his glass to Tony’s.

“Yeah Tony, cheers to us man.” Both boys to a deep drink, Tony swivelled on his chair to look out to the lingering crowd.

“Did you hear Burk got a job as a junior system engineer at Hammer Industries? Mad isn’t it?” Tony asked, Rhodey nodded his head as he looked over to Burk who was enthusiastically talking to Paige, who looked like she was ready to throw herself out of the nearest window. Rhodey laughed at his friends and turned back to Tony.

“Yeah I also heard Paige got offered a very high paying job at Stark Industries? Did you happen to have any part of that?” Looking at Tony out of the side of his eye and laughing once again as he held his hands up in surrender.

“Nope, none. The girl is not only stellar in the sack, she’s a genius to boot, apparently they took one look at her CV and hired her on the spot.” Tony argued back, thinking whether or not he should go save the poor girl from what he could only assume as a very disappointing night ahead of her with Burk.

“What about you Tony, what’s your final plan then?” Rhodey questioned, both had always given each other vague answers whenever the question had been asked, neither really sure what the next step was for either of them.

“I’m thinking maybe see what dear old dad has in store for me with the family business, can’t hurt to have a little dabble. If that doesn’t work out then maybe get a few more PHD’s just to piss him off?” Tony shrugged, looking round to Rhodey who was now laughing into his scotch. Tony notes a look of nervousness pass across Rhodey’s face, why would he be nervous?

“What about you Honeybear? Have you finally decided what’s next for you?” Steeling his nerves Rhodey gave his full attention to Tony.

“Yeah, yeah I have Tones. I got accepted into the United States Air Force, say hello to Senior Airman James Rhodes.” Tony’s mouth fell open and his words, surely he wasn’t hearing him correctly?

“The army? Are you serious?” The words tumbled from Tony’s mouth before he could stop them, Rhodey just nodded.

“Yeah Tones, I report for duty tomorrow.” Tomorrow?! What?! He had mentioned the air force before, months ago but nothing really ever came of it so how was Tony only just finding out about this now? Did he not trust him with this? Rhodey was leaving him, just like everyone eventually did. But Tony didn’t want to be that guy, he wanted to support his best friend.

“Wow, you know it suits you. Just promise me you’re not going to go falling out the sky for me okay?” Tony kept the lightness in his voice, if this is what Rhodey needed to do then he would be there for him, just like every time he had been there for Tony.

“Tony, if you don’t want me to go just say and I won’t. You know that right?” Rhodey voiced and suddenly it clicked for Tony, Rhodey was scared. This was a big step for him and it was a step he had to take alone, but if Tony asked him to stay he would have. Tony didn’t want him to go, he wanted to tell him he needed his best friend and to stay with him but he knew he couldn’t be that selfish, not with Rhodey. So Tony shook his head.

“No Rhodey, you have to go. I’ll be fine, plus you can’t get rid of me that easy you know?” Once Tony said the words he realised he meant them, he would be fine and Rhodey would do fantastically. There was no doubt in his mind about that. Plus is should be really easy to hack into their system to find out what was going on and when he had leave right?

“Yeah I know, I’ve been trying for years now and you somehow keep coming back.” Rhodey stands and Tony follows suit.

“I am a gift and you know it.” Tony reaches out first, wrapping his arms around Rhodey, the former reciprocating immediately. After a moment they pulled back, smiling at each other. Rhodey motions over to where their other friends are still chatting.

“Yeah, yeah sure you are. Well are you going to go save Paige from Burk or not?” Tony just finished his drink and gestured to the door.

“Nah she’s fine, tonight we celebrate, just you and me okay? I know a place, let’s go.” Tony stated plainly and started walking towards the exit, knowing that if Rhodey was going to get shipped off in the morning, the he was going to get one hell of a send-off from him.

“Yeah sounds good Tones.”

As they head out of the venue, they both wondered where the roads they had chosen will lead them. But the one thing neither of them had to wonder is if they had to do it alone, because they both knew where ever they ended up, they had each other.


End file.
